May 02, 2009

Collecting Russel Wright

We've been eating off of a set of vintage chartreuse dishware from Russel Wright's American Modern collection for the past 8 or 9 years, and our collection has (sadly) begun to dwindle as dishes have gotten chipped, cracked and broken through years of daily use. Time to start buying more, I say! The colors in the American Modern line are all so beautiful, but I think I will focus on adding blue, brown and gray to the existing chartreuse pieces we have. I already got a great collection of bread & butter plates on ebay and have my eye on a couple dinner plates... Once I saw these photos I was inspired to grow our collection and mix up the color palette a bit.

Beautiful collection of American Modern dishware spotted on Apartment Therapy.(I'd love to go for a similar collection but with brown instead of pink pieces.)

Someone told us to check out the "Wright at Home" exhibit at SFO but we couldn't find it when we were at the airport last week... might have to make a special trip to see it or get there super early before our next trip in June. More exhibit images/info here.

yes! we saw samples at the gift fair and they do look good, but with the prices being so close to (and sometimes higher than) what you can find on ebay, i'd still rather stick with vintage. i'm happy that these pieces are being reintroduced into american dining rooms once again!

Yes! Definitely in the United terminal. I have seen some of the best exhibits of my life there.. the evolution of 20th C sound recording, California tile, mid-century 'boomerang' patterns, just to name a few. These exhibits added to the magical allure of airports that inspired me to become a United flight attendant. My mom and I used to volunteer to be bumped to later flights just so we could hang out and view the exhibits in greater detail. I hope someone has well documented them all over the years and makes a book someday. Can't wait to see the Wright exhibit when I pass through SFO on my way to the National Stationery Show in NYC (and the Buckminter Fuller exhibit in Chicago) in a few weeks!